State Supporting Passamaquoddy Tribe

The Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, a joint House and Senate committee, has thrown their support behind the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s plan for a new racino. The committee voted 12-1 in favor of the tribe’s proposal, which would allow them to bring in a commercial harness racing track with slot machines. The tribe wants to build the track in Washington County, in northern Maine, where they have ancestral territory.

Now that the committee has approved the plan, it goes on to the full legislature where they will discuss the slot machine racino plan to see if they will approve it. The tribe said that they are excited about the discussion as they have not been able to get this close before.

They say that for 15 years they have been trying to get the slot machines, but the people in the area are not interested in having the tribe bring them in. They were looking at Southern Maine, but they found that if they continued along that line, they would never get it approved. So they started looking at Northern Maine, where they people have said that they would welcome slot machines.

They know that there is a large population in Washington County that would benefit from the revenue that the slot machines would bring in, and this makes it even more attractive to residents. Washington County leads the state in poverty among both tribal and non-tribal residents, and this would help them all. They say there is such a high unemployment rate because there are no jobs, and the casino would definitely help with that.


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